During his Tuesday show, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel tried to mock President Trump’s recent executive order regarding the creation of an “Iron Dome”-like missile defense system by claiming Trump has no idea what he is talking about. However, it was Kimmel who showed his ignorance not just on missile defense but also in insisting that viewers take the scientists at the Doomsday Clock seriously when they recently argued the world is closer to midnight than ever before.
Kimmel began, “But during the campaign, Trump promised to build an impenetrable dome around the country. Similar to the one he tries to hide with Aquanet and Propecia every day. Trump signed an executive order to create an Iron Dome to protect us from ballistic and hypersonic missiles and other missiles that Trump learned about half-watching Top Gun on his plane last year.”
It’s not officially a GOP missile defense plan until someone makes a dismissive comment about Star Wars, and Kimmel did just that, “But, he's been in office for a week, Jabba the Pizza Hut is already building a Death Star. A dome like that makes sense for a country like Israel, which is surrounded by enemies. It doesn't make sense for the United States, which is surrounded by Canada and Mexico. Of course, the way Trump's been going, Canada and Mexico may start firing missiles at us, we don't know.”
Kimmel isn’t completely wrong, just not for the reasons he thinks. “Iron Dome for America” is a misnomer. The real Iron Dome is a defensive system for short-range rockets and mortars. The U.S. has an equivalent, but it has the hideously boring title of Indirect Fire Protection Capability Increment 2. For Trump, calling for an “Iron Dome for America” is just a spiffier, shorthanded way to discuss missile defense and convince the public that investment in such a project is worthwhile because people who know how missiles work that Russian, Chinese, and North Korean missiles have ranges that can reach the U.S.
Missile defense wasn’t the only subject where Kimmel showed his ignorance. Next, he added, “There's a lot of unrest as Trump cozies up to these dictators and threatens our friends, and as a result, the annual reading of what they call the Doomsday Clock has us closer to the end of the world than ever before.”
In a clip, physicist Daniel Holz was shown declaring, “We thus move the clock forward. It is now 89 seconds to midnight. This is the closest the world has ever been to midnight.”
If you truly believe that the world is closer to midnight today than it was at the Cuban Missile Crisis or any other point during the Cold War, you don’t deserve to be taken seriously.
Here is a transcript for the January 28 show:
ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live!
1/28/2025
11:42 PM ET
JIMMY KIMMEL: But during the campaign, Trump promised to build an impenetrable dome around the country. Similar to the one he tries to hide with Aquanet and Propecia every day. Trump signed an executive order to create an Iron Dome to protect us from ballistic and hypersonic missiles and other missiles that Trump learned about half-watching Top Gun on his plane last year.
But, he's been in office for a week, Jabba the Pizza Hut is already building a Death Star. A dome like that makes sense for a country like Israel, which is surrounded by enemies. It doesn't make sense for the United States, which is surrounded by Canada and Mexico. Of course, the way Trump's been going, Canada and Mexico may start firing missiles at us, we don't know.
There's a lot of unrest as Trump cozies up to these dictators and threatens our friends, and as a result, the annual reading of what they call the Doomsday Clock has us closer to the end of the world than ever before.
DANIEL HOLZ: We thus move the clock forward. It is now 89 seconds to midnight. This is the closest the world has ever been to midnight.
